MONDAY, JUNE 11, 2012

Bruges, Belgium

We had an incredible day today -- even tho we had to put up with rain showers most of the day. Luckily the hardest rain of the day was during our leisurely lunch so we never got soaking wet.

We met in the lobby of our hotel this morning at 8:00. Diane had scoped out a breakfast restaurant that had coffee! The name of the restaurant was Prestige and it was a "patisserie" and small breakfast/lunch restaurant. The front part was the bakery and the displays were mouth watering! The tables and chairs were in the back of the restaurant. A very nice waiter (owner?) arranged tables for us to sit together. David and I split a four cheese quiche and had delicious rolls with it. It also came with a salad which David ate. No, they did not have ranch dressing and David survived! I had coffee and he had ice tea from a bottle and it was carbonated. He said it was good. The others had waffles, salmon quiche, raisin croissants and Carol had a delicious-looking yogurt with fresh fruit -- berries, I think. When we were leaving they were arranging gorgeously decorated pastries in the cases. Sheryl and I spotted bite size pastries that were also beautifully decorated. But . . . we did not buy any.

After breakfast we strolled around the city shopping and people-watching. Some of our travelers bought handmade lace souvenirs that were so delicate and beautiful. Some bought lace scarves that are spectacular. At one of the shops that I did not go into the male owner was in he back making lace! What an art. So intricate.

Yesterday during our explorations we discovered two eye glass stores. You all know that Sheryl, David and I have glasses from Venice. Yes, we think we're really cool. So we decided to check out the stores. The first store had glasses from Paris and they were very expensive. For instance one pair we liked for David was 800 euro -- about $999.00. The store owner was not very nice either so we quickly left that store. Then we went to one just down the street from our hotel named Hoet (pronounced hoot). It is a family run business and the father is the eye glass designer. The glasses are all made in Belgium. They had a huge selection in many, many colors and Sheryl and David tried on a bunch. They each selected a pair -- Sheryl's are purple (Laurie, you would LOVE them) and the rest of you will just have to wait to see what David picked out. These glasses were affordable! The owner also showed us the most unique glasses we had ever seen but the glass part is so intricate that the salesman said it might be hard to get someone in the US to make them into progressive lenses so we couldn't buy those. Carol, who was just along to look and had no intention of buying glasses, bought the BEST sunglasses any of us have ever seen. I cannot do them justice describing them so you will have to wait for pictures.

The last time we were here we heard about the 4 windmills and we wanted to see them and Sheryl wanted to photograph them. Sheryl, Noel and I walked and walked but did not find the windmills -- turns out we were walking in the wrong direction! So today we decided to go see them. The desk clerk at our hotel showed Sandy how to get there and also recommended a restaurant for us to have lunch on the way. The restaurant was called Du Phare and it was a very interesting place. The menu was extremely varied and offered seafood, salads, spaghetti, chicken tortillas with salsa, cheese croquets, shrimp croquets, etc., so we had quite the variety of lunches. David had vegetarian couscous which he liked and I had the chicken tortillas. All of the food looked very good and I think everyone enjoyed it. It was a lot bigger lunch than we are used to but we were able to stretch it out for a very long time to avoid the heaviest downpours of rain. Two interesting things about this restaurant. First of all, patrons brought their dogs in. And not just service dogs. Secondly, the restroom had a seat cleaner on it that cleaned the seat after every use. A contraption came out and the seat moved through it in a circle and cleaned it. Very good idea, I think. I didn't even need to use the bathroom but I had to go check it out anyway because Sheryl said it was blog-worthy!

After lunch we had just a short walk to the windmills. They were something cool to see and we took photographs of them. Then we walked back into the town center and headed back towards our hotel. We did have to stop at Dumons Chocolatier one last time just to pick up a few more treats before we leave tomorrow. Just so you all know, we are not able to bring home chocolate this trip because we have no room to pack it AND it would probably melt into a gigantic mess!

We met back up at the hotel and Sue, Diane, Sandy and Linda went on a canal cruise which they all enjoyed very much. David and Sheryl went to the train station to buy our tickets for our trip to The Hague tomorrow and I came back to the room and rested a little bit. Soon Sheryl and David returned and Sheryl went to her room and brought Carol and their treat bag back to our room. What a treat bag! They had chocolate twizzlers, M&M pretzels, Rice Krispie treats, plain M&Ms, granola bars, etc. So we all had a few treats and visited. Then the other four returned from the canal trip and they gathered in our room too. We all had a blast just sitting around talking. I will have to finish this tomorrow because I am just too sleepy to write anymore. Good night!

Back to the blog. After the treat frenzy in our room, Sandy, Linda, Sue and Diane decided to head down to the bar for a glass of wine. David, Sheryl, Carol and I went out to see a Christmas store I had spotted earlier and to have waffles. You know . . . Belgium waffles!!! The Christmas store was closed but we did find a great place for waffles! Sheryl had hers with butter and powdered sugar, David had his with sugar and whipped cream, Carol had hers with warm cherry sauce and I had mine with chocolate sauce, ice cream and whipped cream. They were deadly and sooooo good. I hate to admit this but I think I have even reached my "sweets threshold!" We walked back to our hotel, said goodnight to the girls in the bar and went to bed. We all hate to leave Bruges in the morning because it is a wonderful, historic city and everyone is so nice here!